I have a Acer Aspire One AOA 150 with Windows Xp Home and Windows 7 Pro with a 3 cell battery. What are the techniques for improving battery life in both Windows7 and Xp ?
2 Answers
I would also recommend purchasing a 6 or 9 cell battery. Either of these will double (or triple) your battery life and is well worth the investment. At amazon or ebay, a 6/9 cell battery can be purchased for around $50.
No matter the OS, the main issue with laptops and notebooks is the backlight - lower it as low as possible.
Next, close background processes you do not need - The Atom CPU is much better than desktop CPUs however, the higher the utilisation, the higher the power draw (marginal).
Set good power management techniques, hard drive power down etc.
If using XP, it is a bit harder to set additional items, however in Windows Vista and 7 go to the power management control panel (or press Windows Key+X to go to mobility centre) and you can change the power mode which will automatically set best practices for different situations.
answered Nov 11, 2009 at 21:18
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thanks...how do i control the screen brightness from software in XP home? I also want to log my battery performance as I always run a select few apps on the netbook. Is there a tool for this ?– icemanNov 11, 2009 at 22:28
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My AA1 110 has brightness controls on the keyboard (Fn+left and Fn+right if I remember rightly though I don't have the machine in front of me to check) which works under Ubuntu so presumably does under Windows too. Though if you change the brightness this way you'll probably need to redo it next time you login, suspend/resume or reconnect+disconnect the power. Nov 20, 2009 at 11:10
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yes, i know it too and it works with Windows 7...but I want a software way to do it....– icemanNov 21, 2009 at 22:27
Fn+F3). The radio draws quite a bit of power to try to scan the area and connect to networks, even when nothing is being transferred.